Travels from South Dakota by motorcycle

Riding across Alberta

Canmore is in a stunningly beautiful part of the world, the front range of the Rocky Mountains. We take advantage of the time we have here to go see Banff and Lakes Louise and Moraine. Nevil suggests we take the 1A instead of the main highway which hopefully means we will get to see more wildlife.

And sure enough, on our way north we see a black bear in the ditch and a few cars stopping for a look see.

There are busloads of tourists in the area, and for good reason; it’s gorgeous. We stop off for a nice lunch in Lake Louise.

A few miles further up the hill we stop in at Lake Moraine to see the turquoise waters which still have pieces of floating ice in them.

Brian Does some more work on the bikes. Mine is due for the valve clearances to be adjusted (his needs that too) and our friend, Jim, offers to loan us a set of KLR shims for the job. Thanks so much, Jim!

Michelle and Nevil take us for a drive up the hill toward the Spray Lakes one evening and we luck out and see a few moose.

Our time at the Stowasis (my nickname for the paradise we have found with the Stow family) has come to an end. I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed our time here. Besides the fact that it was wonderful to have a place to catch up, relax, restore, work on bikes and rest….there were those Garage-aritas, the fabulous NMMFF (Nine Minute Moto Film Festival), the great meals, and most of all the 3 fabulous Stows. Thank you, Nevil and Michelle and Jessica for making us feel so welcome.

The next day we pack up and head out, bound for the border south of Calgary near Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. We get to spend a few minutes with John Colyer in a Tim Hortons west of Calgary and have a few laughs. Great guy, and he’s an inspiring one too. John was a week out from a scheduled surgery to clip an aneurism his doctors had found recently. His infectious spirit, optimism and sense of humor didn’t seem to be affected at all, and I had every faith he was going to come through it just fine. (and he did!)

We ride south along the 22 toward the border with the USA, and I find myself really excited to be inching my way closer to home. Along the way there is a stretch of fence with caps nailed to the top of each fence post. We stop for a photo.

When we stop for a break in Lundbreck I hear a buzzing in my right ear and think we are riding past a sawmill or something….and we have been riding past a few. But this turns out to be a giant bumble bee stuck in my helmet. Thankfully, my personal mechanic had his tools handy and took my visor off so the poor thing could get its leg un-stuck and fly away. Pretty sure he was not happy with me (the bee).